TV manufacturers may wish to provide TVs with built-in interactive devices, e.g., personal video recorders (PVR), optical disk players such as Blu-Ray disk players and digital video disk (DVD) players and the like, so that a customer conveniently need purchase only the TV with interactive devices in a single seamless system. As recognized by the present assignee, it would be further desirable to provide the interactive devices with the TV in modular form so that as new and upgraded interactive devices become available, the TV system may be upgraded by replacing an old module with a new one without having to purchase an entirely new TV system.
To ensure that only modular interactive devices meeting the manufacturer's standards (to, e.g., protect brand names) can be used in connection with its TVs, a TV manufacturer might wish to develop a proprietary way to connect such modular devices with its TVs such that interactive devices of third party manufacturers cannot be used unless they have been pre-approved by the TV manufacturer and duly licensed. As recognized herein, however, the TV manufacturer might nonetheless wish to provide an easier, less restrictive way for other manufacturers to provide certain non-interactive devices such as data storage devices configured in a wide variety of options so that the TV customer has a wide selection of input/output options from which to choose. It is to this critical recognition that the present invention is directed.